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3 ways to party

How the experts plan their holiday bashes

It's that time of year again — party time.

Photograph by: Chris Mikula, The Ottawa Citizen
, The Ottawa Citizen

It's that season again. Already. This was the year you were going to have that fabulous party, bring together friends from the various arenas of your life, chat with colleagues about something other than the office and generally spread good cheer.

It's not too late. With the help of our three party experts, you can plan an intimate dinner party, a swish evening of cocktails or a kid-friendly open house.

We asked a catering duo, a TV chef and a professional events planner how they would throw their own parties -- assuming no staff and a somewhat limited budget. They offer various strategies, but they all suggest one thing in common: Go to enough trouble to make it special, but not so much that you'll never want to do it again.

THE DINNER PARTY

Our experts

While they don't exactly consider themselves caterers, Jennifer Heagle and Jo-Ann Laverty, owners of The Red Apron, make the equivalent of 120 meals every day for pickup or home-delivery. Their weekly set menus (for Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) would be welcome at any dinner-party table.

The guest list

"Eight is the perfect number for a dinner party," says Heagle. It's an intimate group that fits around most dining tables, but large enough to support two conversations. While a dinner party, especially during the holidays, is a great way to celebrate with old friends, consider inviting someone new who you think your regular circle would enjoy meeting. A dinner, says Heagle, offers an opportunity for guests to have real conversations in a way that other mix-and-mingle events might not.

When to have it

With a growing business and kids in school, Heagle and Laverty say they can't think about having a dinner party on any day other than a Friday or Saturday. Most people would agree. But with holiday social schedules filling up, it might be hard to find a night when everyone on your guest wish-list is free. If that's the case, consider a Sunday supper, or even a weekday meal. These dinners will start and end earlier (which might be a bonus), and your guests will appreciate having a delicious meal on a week night when they had been planning to sup, say, on cereal.

The basics

Three courses, say Heagle and Laverty: a soup or salad appetizer; a meat main (assuming there are no vegetarians on your list) with a starch and a vegetable; and a sweet or savoury dessert. If you want to prolong dinner, you could start with soup and have a salad course between the main and dessert, but it's not necessary.

WHEN TO MAKE, WHEN TO FAKE

The appetizers

Make it: Soups, warm and comforting at this time of year, and salads (with homemade croutons). Make it all a day or two ahead of time.

Fake it: Heagle and Laverty look to local products for simple but stunning opening courses. Consider exotic oysters from Whalesbone Oyster House on Bank Street or a fish store like Pelican Fishery, also on Bank, where they'll shuck the oysters and send them home with you on a bed of crushed ice (bring your own platter when you order or re-plate them onto individual dishes to serve). Or serve some smoked fish from the Chelsea Smokehouse on Highway 105, with store-bought toasts (Rainforest Crisps are particularly good) and crème fraîche -- an impressive opener, and you haven't cooked a thing.

The main

Make it: Heagle and Laverty haven't met a dish that can't be reheated.

"Don't dress the salad the day before, but make everything else, including the dressing," says Laverty. She's only half (or possibly even a quarter) joking. Because The Red Apron makes hundreds of home-delivery meals that are reheated in clients' ovens, the duo has become adept at figuring out what can be made ahead.

"There are so many things that actually taste better made ahead of time," says Heagle, referring to cuts of meat such as brisket, short ribs, pot roasts and stews that taste wonderful when slowly braised in liquid at low temperatures.

Heagle and Laverty try to avoid fish for a main course because it has to be made at the last moment and is easy to overcook. Instead, include fish in the first course.

Starch side dish

Make it: Virtually all potato dishes can be made a day ahead. Mashed (especially when made with a hearty dose of butter and cream) reheat well in the microwave or in the top of a double boiler. Potatoes au gratin -- thinly sliced spuds with cheese -- are also great the second day. The trick, say the Aprons, is to weight them down as they cool so the next day you have a dense, sliceable potato pie that you can cut into wedges -- or even festive shapes with a cookie cutter.

Butternut squash is seasonal and can be prepared in advance with butter, cream and maple syrup. (What doesn't taste good with butter, cream and maple syrup?) Rice, polenta and couscous are all starchy sides that need hardly any attention, and the last two cook in no time.

Fake it: Pick up a couple of boxes of cooked Chinese sticky rice at your local Asian restaurant for $1 per container -- one less thing to cook, one less pot to clean.

Vegetable

Make it: The vegetable side dish is perhaps the only thing Heagle and Laverty would make à la minute. Because they need so little cooking, vegetables such as green beans, asparagus and zucchini remain crisper and fresher if blanched or steamed just before serving. (But you can still trim and wash them ahead of time.)

Dessert

Fake it: "I love making desserts, but it's so time-consuming, and with so many great bakeries in Ottawa, that's where I'd 'cheat,'" says Laverty. If you do make dessert, choose something that can be made well in advance and frozen.

Cheese is another great dessert that involves no kitchen work. Serve individual plates of two to three cheeses -- it's too difficult for everyone to help themselves from a cheese board sitting in the middle of the dining-room table -- with a slice or two of fruit or a few berries or candied nuts. If you still want to end on a sweet note, serve a chocolate truffle with coffee.

What to drink

You might open the meal with sparkling wine, which always sets a festive tone. (There's no need to splurge on Champagne with so many other good choices available.)

When choosing wines to go with your meal, think about what you enjoy drinking, what types of alcohol you've used in your cooking and what the recipes you're following suggest. LCBO staff may be able to assist in picking a wine that will complement your meal.

If your guests present you with wine that isn't right for the meal, "stash it away," says Laverty. Or, if your friends ask to bring something, tell them what kind of wine you're looking for. However, you can't be too specific. The general type of wine (an off-dry Riesling, for example) is about as detailed as politeness allows.

For the holidays, The Red Apron is offering holiday-themed meals for pickup or delivery every Thursday at $18 a person. Order ahead. For more information, visit redapron.ca.

- - -

dinner party Game plan

Two weeks ahead (if possible)

- After ascertaining any food dislikes or allergies your guests may have, put together a menu, starting with the main course. Will it be beef or chicken, or would your party be up for something more adventurous, like local elk, bison or venison? Browse various cookbooks, gourmet food magazines and websites for suitable, do-ahead recipes. Once you've chosen the main course, select an appetizer and dessert. There aren't many rules anymore about what goes together, but if in doubt, stick within a certain cuisine (say Spanish or French). And you might not want to start with soup if you're following with stew.

One week ahead

- If making dessert, do so and freeze. Or order one. Make crostini (thin dried toasts), if using.

Three days ahead

- Do all your grocery shopping -- with a list. "When you go to the grocery store, it's easy to get distracted, and convince yourself that maybe you need five kinds of cheeses ... and some paté," says Laverty. "Before you know it, you've blown the budget and you have enough food for 20 people."

- Buy wine or other alcohol you plan to serve.

Two days ahead

- Set dining room table.

- Make soup.

- Make salad dressing.

One day ahead

- Make main course.

- Make starchy vegetable.

- Wash and dry green vegetable and salad greens.

The day of

- Defrost any dessert you made ahead, or pick up dessert if buying.

- Defrost bread or pick up fresh.

- Remove food from refrigerator and bring to room temperature.

One hour before

- Begin gently re-warming made-ahead food.

- Bring cheese to room temperature if serving.

- Cook green vegetable.

A NOTE ON DECOR

During the holidays, most houses are already decorated, so you don't need much. A couple of single, dramatic blooms will dress up a dinner table, a sea of votive candles manages to be both seasonal and sexy at a cocktail party (you can't beat IKEA for price and selection of candles), and as for an open house, with the tree and boughs draped over the fireplace mantel, all you need are some fancy cocktail napkins.

cocktail party Game plan

Two weeks ahead (if possible)

- Place your rental order for glasses appropriate to your drinks; having a martini in a martini glass is half the fun. You'll need about three glasses per person.

- Consider renting small hors d'oeuvres dishes (square is very in).

A week ahead

- Shop for all your alcohol.

- If pre-mixing cocktails, do so. If you don't add the water now, they will keep at room temperature.

- Make crostini, won-ton wrapper cups, if using.

- Select (or buy) the CDs you plan to play or, even better, make a playlist for your MP3 player (try to make it at least two hours long). Music is a big part of the cool factor at a cocktail party, but it's not something you'll be wanting to deal with the day of.

THREE DAYS AHEAD

- Do all your shopping with a list.

One day ahead

- Pick up rentals.

- Wash and dry any vegetables on your menu.

- Make any dips on your menu.

- Cook shrimp if serving shrimp cocktail.

- Add water to drinks and refrigerate (they need to chill at least six hours).

The day of

- Set up "stations" by placing napkins at each one and hors d'oeuvre plates if necessary. For the drink station, choose an area where the boxes of rental glasses can be stacked, and used stemware can easily be replaced with fresh.

- Put cocktails in the freezer. If using fine glass bottles, be careful not to leave them too long.

- Prepare drink garnishes.

- Make pineapple salsa, if using.

Two hours ahead

- Grill sausages or other meat, if using.

An hour ahead

- Assemble all hors d'oeuvres.

- Stock food and drink stations.

Open House Game Plan

Two weeks (or more) ahead

- Invite your guests. While a written invitation is always nice, it is almost de rigueur for open houses. It's getting late in the season, though, so you may have to hand-deliver them. Try hautenote.com for custom invitations delivered to your door in as little as three days. At this point, your best bet may be electronic invitations available at sites like Evite.com and sendomatic.com.

- Place your rental order for glasses or consider buying a few dozen if you have space to store them. Dollar stores have perfectly acceptable glasses, while grocery and department stores routinely sell boxes of 12 for $10.

- If planning to bake, do it now and freeze (except for shortbread, which mellows with age).

A WEEK AHEAD

- Shop for wine and beer, if serving.

Three days ahead

- Do all your shopping with a list.

One day ahead

- Pick up rentals, if using.

- Wash and dry any vegetables on your menu.

- Make any dips that you aren't purchasing.

The day of

- Set up "stations" with plenty of cocktail napkins at each.

- Set up a drink station with glasses and at least one wine bottle opener.

- Set up kids' area, if having one (consider having the kids' snacks and drinks there instead of in the main entertaining area).

An hour ahead

- Put out the food and drinks.

- Consider leaving white wine and other chilled drinks outdoors, and bring in as needed.

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